The treatment of Raheela Sajid and her two young children at the hands of immigration staff is outrageous.

Whatever the issue over the family's asylum application there can be no excusing the appalling heavy-handed tactics that were used to bundle this family out of Teesside.

In the most startling, cold-hearted, and crude way an 11-year-old girl was taken out of lessons at her primary school, searched and put into a secure van.

She was left terrified as she was 'snatched' in front of her classmates by men wearing flak jackets.

The school's deputy head, instead of going about her normal duties, found herself comforting little Shataj by holding her hands through the bars of the van.

And Cromwell Road School headteacher Brenda Urwin was left to condemn the way this child, in her care, was treated like a terrorist.

It led to her remarking: "It makes me ashamed to be British."

And it also leads to a question we should all be asking: why do we treat families in this sort of situation in this way?

Along with Shataj, her brother Muhammad was taken from his school, and their mother Raheela was led from her South Bank home.

But why such brutally callous tactics? It's not as if they were likely to flee. Raheela was actually sitting at home waiting for the immigration officials to arrive having been told they wanted to do an inspection.

That poor woman, who has not slept for days, is distraught at her treatment - and terrified of returning to a situation in Pakistan where she fears for her life. Her children, also afraid and confused, have had to watch their mother cry so much she lost her voice.

Could this not have been handled in a more civilised way?

Today we have the community where this family lived rallying in support. And we have MP Vera Baird raising concerns.

So let us hope that whatever the future holds for this young woman and her children they are treated with much greater dignity and respect.